It has been known for many years to provide electrically conductive components in connection with footwear which exhibit the ability to conduct electrical charge to ground for various purposes. U.S. Pat. No. 2,305,542 discloses a process for rendering leather conductive, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,013,184 discloses a booty with an electrically conductive sole.
Other footwear exhibiting somewhat less ability to conduct electrical charge has been used by persons in the electronic and computer industries who must void and/or discharge static electricity which may build up upon the clothing and body.
Various methods have been proposed for causing static electricity to be discharged from the body and clothing and these expedients have often resulted in cumbersome, expensive and poorly designed shoes. For example, there have been proposed body grounding straps in U.S. Pat. No. 2,586,747 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,712,098, and other antistatic or conductive straps in various forms and for various purposes such as, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,083,124; 3,694,939; 4,551,783; and 3,737,723. Electrically conductive elements comprising or extending through various shoe sole layers such as foot pad, insole, midsole and the like in order to make contact with the bottom sole of the wearer's foot have been designed in various forms as, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,261,072; 2,710,366; 3,079,530; 4,727,452; 4,366,630; 4,689,900; and 4,785,371. Other electrically conductive elements have been used in footwear designs such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,532,724 and 3,898,750. All these devices may be uncomfortable to wear, difficult or expensive to manufacture, unsightly or structurally awkward or unsound.